Making Things Right
by LadyAmandanthala
Summary: When Pam finds out that Jim is dating someone, she has two options: be upset and cry, or try to win him back. Right now it's pretty tame, but the rating will go up for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1 Pam

Pam reveled in the power that she felt every time Jim looked over. It helped her to feel feminine, even when she knew that she looked more like a nun than a seductress in her current work wardrobe. Their flirtation had been going on since she had started working there, and it had always felt comfortable, like an old shirt that always made her feel good. Something that she could count on without ever having to see.

And then it had all changed. First Jim had kissed her, then gone away. And now he was back, which was supposed to make everything alright, because they would fall into each others arms and finally get rid of the sexual tension that had been plaguing them for years. But that wasn't how it had happened. Because he had fallen in love in Connecticut, and brought her back with him. Now Pam had to sit there and watch as the only man she had ever really wanted, ever really... loved, moved on in his life with someone else.

For months, she had let this go. Told herself that it was only what she deserved after all of the torture that she must have put him through every time she went home with Roy. And so she would go home alone, back to an empty apartment that still seemed empty, even though she had already moved all of her stuff in. Almost every midnight would find her curled up in a ball in her bed, clinging to the shirt that he had once let her wear home and crying until she was so spent that she could no longer move.

But one morning she woke up realizing that she had had enough. Karen was as fleeting to Jim as Roy had been to her, it had to be that way. They were supposed to be together, it was the one thing that they had both wanted but were too afraid to reach for. And after all this time, it couldn't be too late for them. She had to convince him somehow that they owed it to each other to give it a shot. With a plan forming in her still hazy mind, she got out of bed and went into the kitchen to pour herself her first cup of coffee. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the toaster, and was shocked at what she saw. Where had the limp curls and dark bags come from? Was she breaking out!? The wife-beater and boxers that she slept in did nothing for her figure, and suddenly she saw herself the way that everyone else must see her. Hurriedly finishing her coffee, she raced into the bathroom and tried to figure out if she had enough weapons in her beauty arsenal to fix this abysmal mess.

Half an hour later she marched back into her bedroom clad in only a towel. She had shaved, washed her hair, deep conditioned it, put on lotion, and was actually bearing some resemblance to the Pam Beesley that everyone else knew and loved. Knowing that the clothes she had picked out wouldn't do, she dove into the back of her closet and came up with an outfit that she had bought a long time ago, but had quickly dismissed as office wear. Laying it out on the bed, she went to her lingerie drawer and pulled out one of the few pretty sets that she had bought for herself right after she and Roy had broken up.

Laying out everything on the bed, she began to methodically get dressed. First the black satin bra and panties, then the garter belt and stockings. She pulled on a blue silk camisole, feeling the luxurious fabric glide over her curves. Next was a black pencil skirt that had a bit of detailing at the waist and a kick pleat in the back. After pairing it all with a dark grey cardigan, she stared at herself in the mirror.

The sensible shoes that she normally wore obviously wouldn't do, so she pulled out the black pumps that she had gotten one time when she was shopping with Jim, after seeing the way that his eyes traveled up and down her legs. They had been out of her budget at the time, but she never wanted to wear them in front of Roy, as it seemed slightly dishonest, though she wasn't sure to whom.

After getting dressed, she blew out her hair and tucked it up into one of those messy hairdo's that look as though they are about to fall down. She very carefully applied her makeup, and added an extra coat of gloss to her lips. If she was going to seduce someone, she might as well go all the way. Bundling herself into her winter coat, she locked her apartment and headed to work.

One of the perks of being the receptionist was that she was one of the only people who had a key, and therefore could technically enter the building at any time that she wanted to. Though she always came in early, it was normally only early enough to turn on the lights and straighten her desk before anyone else showed up. This morning she had given herself some extra time, and so after she hung up her coat she began to hunt through his desk. She was very careful to make sure that nothing was disturbed, and when she found his appointment book, she was glad to see that there was nothing in it for that night. It looked as though every other date with Karen had been recorded, so the fact that there was nothing going on tonight would hopefully work in her favor. She put everything back the way that she had found it and went off to start the first pot of coffee, a small secretive smile playing over her face.


	2. Chapter 2 Jim

Jim was exhausted by the time that he got to work. Things between him and Karen were not going very well at the moment, and it was taking more effort than he thought it would to cover up the fact that he was still very much in love with Pam. But she knew, and after a long talk they had decided to take things slow. Everything had taken so much out of him that the thought of going to work and having to listen to Dwight and Micheal was almost enough to make him turn over and not get up, but then he wouldn't get to see Pam.

He'd never really noticed how much Pam was a part of his life until he made the choice to leave. Sure, he knew that he was crazy head over heels in love with her, but it wasn't until he wasn't able to see her all of the time that he realized that seeing her was a big part of his day. He'd moved on, of course, or so he kept telling himself. The fact that he wasn't really fitting in with his new office mates had nothing to do with the fact that he didn't want to be there.

But it wasn't until that one phone call that it really hit him. For that little bit of time, he could pretend that he had never left. Everything was as it should be, until she had said "Bye." And with that one word, it was as if their entire conversation had never happened. He scrambled to get off the phone, cursing himself for letting it happen again. But for the next couple of days, all he could think about was how she'd sounded on the phone. He'd heard through the grapevine that she had called off the wedding, and part of him wanted to go back and make things right between them.

Luckily, the self preserving part of him kept him in Stamford, though it was all too soon that he was moving back to Scranton. Back to everything that he thought he had left behind. Back to Pam. For a while he had tried to keep things professional between them, even though he could see how much it was hurting her that he was pushing her away. He assumed it was almost as much as it hurt him to have to do so, but he couldn't let himself get involved with any of that now. Karen was a much healthier relationship, a way to move on from everything that he had done wrong and go forward with his fresh start.

But as hard as he had tried, nothing helped. He had to go into work every day, pretend that his heart didn't still break when she got back together with Roy. There were times when he replayed their fight scene in his mind and wished that Roy had punched him, so he would have a reason to hate her. Even though hating Pam was something he could never do.

He walked into the office just before he would have been officially late, as was his usual habit. He knew that it annoyed Dwight, which was actually just a bonus because it was really that he simply didn't care enough about the job to show up on time that made him do it. He dropped his coat on the coat rack before heading into the break room and getting a cup of coffee, knowing that there was no way that he would be able to survive without it.

On the way back to his desk, he suddenly changed course and headed over to reception to see Pam. Once again, it was the little things that he missed, the spending time just talking to her, planning new pranks to pull on Dwight, or making mean comments about Micheal. He had told her that he had to be more professional now that he had been promoted, but that wasn't the reason that he had stopped being so friendly with her.

It was because spending all that time with her and then going home with Karen – someone wwho, while wonderful in her own right was definitely not Pamela Beesley – had begun to drive him crazy. And, he missed her.

"Hey Pam," he said leaning over the side of her desk. "Any messages? Pranks? Anything new going on?"

"Nope. Just your normal everyday boring Dunder Mifflin workload. Although Micheal is still avoiding Jan like the plague, and I'm trying to come up with a new way to annoy Dwight."

"Really? It's actually been a while since we've planned a prank on him. Not since..."

"The CIA thing. I actually got really bored one day and started a list of ideas, and the one that I keep going back to is slowly moving everything from one side of his desk to the other. But that one would take too much time, and it would be too obvious if I kept getting up from the desk."

"I'll do it," he said, hurt that it seemed like she didn't want to include him in her plans anymore. "It'll be easy for me to. And I think that it's just simple enough to annoy him."

"Great. Well, Karen is here, so you should probably get back to work." He sat down just as Karen walked by, and he could almost feel how sad she was about the way that things were going. Dwight had gone to the bathroom, so he quickly moved his stapler remover from one side of the computer screen to the other. It didn't seem like much, but the point was that he and Pam were doing something again. Together. And it just felt right.

For most of the morning, everyone was so busy that there was no time to talk. It was nearing the end of the quarter, which meant that everyone had to at least meet or exceed their stated quota. If everyone had worked at a steady pace all the time than this wouldn't be a problem, but it was a rare day at Dunder Mifflin when any actually work got done.

At lunch, he went over to Karen to see what she wanted to eat, but was surprised when she told him that she had a lunch meeting with a prospective client. "I'm sorry to just drop this on you, but it just came up. I'm not sure when I'll be back either, so I'll just plan on seeing you at home later, OK?" She brushed a quick kiss on his cheek and then went to get her coat from the coat rack at Pam's desk. It was at that moment that Pam left her desk to go into the breakroom, and she saw that instead of her normal rather dowdy clothes, she was wearing something completely... sexy. For a minute Karen thought about not going on her meeting, but that would be stupid. She and Jim were in an established relationship, and she had to trust that nothing would happen. There could be no relationship without trust.

So she left.

Jim had been so preoccupied with watching Karen leave so that he could actually breathe normally that it wasn't until Pam was on her way back from the breakroom that he saw what she was wearing. _Wow... just... wow. _He thought, looking at all of the skin that was normally covered. She was carrying a cup of tea, and he turned to watch as she walked past his desk to set it down on her desk.

"Hey Pam," he called, ashamed to notice that his throat had gone so dry he could barely speak above a whisper. Luckily for him, she was so used to his whispering at her that she heard him as clearly as if he had been shouting.

She walked over to his desk, sitting down on the corner. It was something that she used to do all of the time, but... this time was different. The way that she was sitting made her breasts, all lusciously covered by the silk of the camisole and the grey of the cardigan. To an outsider, this outfit was as prim and proper as the other ones that she normally wore, but to him it was different. And even though he knew that he should have been focusing on Karen and how their relationship was rapidly going downhill, he couldn't help but hope that she had worn it for him.

"What are you doing for lunch?"

"I brought a lunch. I figured that you would be going out with Karen, as usual."

"Oh."

"But it's just leftovers. They can wait, if you wanted to go somewhere?" Jim felt horribly guilty at the hopefulness in her tone, at the fact that he had deserted his best friend, something that they had promised never to do to one another.

"I do. Grab your coat, and meet me in the parking lot." He logged out of the system as fast as he could, grabbed his coat and took the stairs two at a time.


End file.
